Tales from the Avenue

TalesfromtheAvenue

I'm no newbie to these parts, having had a previous username (or two) and several debt free diaries, but, that was a completely different life back then, so very far detached from what my life is now, so here is my brand-spanking new diary and the shiny new Me.

I'm a proud single mum of a much adored little boy. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful partner of around a year too. We don't live together, but he and I are only a few minutes walk from each other which is lovely.
I recently moved house, downsized my mortgage and went PT at work, to be around for my son more. The drop in wages is not great, but life is a lot less stressful.

After being in debt for most of my adult life, I'm now debt free (apart from the mortage), but I am still living from payday to payday and it really wouldn't take much to send me back into debt. I try to save, but it's not easy being the only breadwinner on a PT wage now and I really need to buck my ideas up.

Hopefully this diary will help me to stay on the straight and narrow and stay debt free, build a reasonable emergency fund up and stay out of debt whilst still enjoying life and savings for some fun times too rather than worrying about how to pay for everything.

That's the plan anyway...

TFTA

TalesfromtheAvenue

£5.55 is winging its way to the bank account courtesy of quidco this afternoon, will transfer it to the holiday 'pot' AKA e-saver when it hits. I'm aiming to save £450 into there before May, am currently halfway.

Had to stop at Aldi for a few bits for dinner on the way home from work. Under a fiver spent there and money taken from my purse, so nothing to adjust on the budgets there.
Just need to pick up one more thing from the corner shop I forgot I'm aldi on the way to pick DS up later, but will use change in my purse again.

Trying to keep up to date with YNAB again. �� I've had it for some years but never seem to keep it up. I forget to add things to it and then find it hard to keep up, but I really must try harder as I know it will help me.

One load of washing is on, another to do tonight. No chance of drying it on the line in this weather though so will have to use the tumble dryer.

OH coming over for dinner later, I'm cooking a veggie tagine and am anticipating lots of leftovers as it always makes a lot, so will freeze surplus for another time.

Bobarella

Good luck with it all.

foxyloxy11

good luck on your new journey!!That's the good thing about life...we get to keep on trying and improving each time.:)

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thanks for popping by and for the words of encouragement both. :beer:

Was it just me or was yesterday the longest day ever?! I have a feeling today will be much the same, Tuesdays always seem to drag at work.

So, I spent £1.49 in the corner shop last night and DS came home with a request for £3 for an event at school. Both spends covered by change in my purse. :T

Last night's dinner yielded 4 large leftover portions which are now in the freezer ready for another day.
Dinner tonight is leftover chilli, taken from the freezer.

I do need to pop to the shop tonight and stock up on some bits and pieces that I didn't realise I'd run out on. Will walk DS to the shops after school if it's not raining, just to get some exercise and save on diesel too. We're lucky that we're within walking distance of our little town. We may pop into the library whilst we're there and pick up some new books to read for both of us.

This morning I noticed that DS has nearly gone through the front of his school shoes. He must've been scraping the toes on the ground or something as there's worn patches on them. I'll have to take him to the Clarks outlet about half an hour away from us at the weekend and buy some new ones. I have an e-saver account which I put £20-£30 a month in to cover school uniform, new clothes for DS and any other school related expenses. There's currently £100 in there, so the shoes will be covered by that. I also need to buy a homework folder with the school logo on, not sure how much they are, but am anticipating under £10, so that will come out of that account too.

My lovely parents and family sent me loads of new clothes for DS last week, all in the next size up. It's such a big help as he just seems to have outgrown all of his clothes at once and I was anticipating having to go and spend a small fortune on jeans and jumpers and Pjs for him. They seem to have read my mind and bought everything he needed! I am so lucky to have them, just sad they live so far away and we don't see them often enough (they live around a 3 hour drive away).

TFTA

TalesfromtheAvenue

Ah excellent, school folder thingy is only £4 and have enough cash in my purse for that too, no need to take it out of the school expenses pot. :T

TalesfromtheAvenue

A planned day out for next week has been cancelled today, am a bit disappointed, but it will save me £50+ so relieved about that.

I've also just chased a refund for an item returned over a week ago. A birthday gift for OH that was faulty when it arrived, I shan't be dealing with that company again as have had to chase them from the offset.

Lunch was a tin of soup from my office desk drawer which I've been ignoring for months as didn't look very appetising, but actually turned out to be really tasty! I'm trying to focus on eating only when I'm hungry as I'm terrible for picking when I'm bored. Hopefully that will help me lose a few lbs and gain a few ££s.

I've decided to give the planned shopping trip a miss tonight. The weather is awful, I just want to go home and try and avoid dragging DS out after school anyway. We all know how much kids dislike shopping. The only thing I really needed for this evening was pancake mix for DS, but I will stop being lazy and just make it from scratch instead. I'm out of foil, but DS can have his sandwiches in cling film tomorrow instead!

Just for my own benefit, tonght's list:

• Clean downstairs floors
• Do another load of washing
• Sort ebay/charity shop bag and list anything worth ebaying
• Get business orders packed and ready to post
• Look at surveys etc.

hugglemonster

Hi, sounds like you have a good budget plan and good luck building your emergency fund - this is something I really need to do, currently have £50 in there!

You sound like you live in a town similar to mine, I can walk across the road and be in the high street and pop to all the local shops and the library.

How lovely of your parents to send all those clothes, it makes a massive difference.

Nice to 'meet' you, H x

TalesfromtheAvenue

Thank you Hugglemonster, nice to 'meet' you too!

An emergency fund is really reassuring, but I need to work on mine too at the moment as it's diminished greatly these past few months. I currently have £350 in my 'house & car pot', but this is used for things like car & house insurance, MOT, car repairs etc. I put £100 a month in there but a couple of new tyres on the car or somthing can empty it pretty fast. I really would like it to be at £1500 so am working on this.

I have an ISA which I have earmarked as my real 'emergency' saving pot - ie. if I lost my job or such.
I did have a large lump in there from proceeds of my house sale (I moved to a house £30K cheaper than the one I had previously, strangely, the new one is bigger and much more homely though!) but I paid £17K off my mortgage with it and then the rest has been swallowed up or allocated to house renovations as this house needed some work.

Yes, it's great being able to walk places, I love it. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been so kind this week though. I don't mind a bit of rain, but this week the rain was something else!

X

TalesfromtheAvenue

Well I didn't get all my planned jobs done last night, I got sidetracked painting a wall in the lounge which I'm not sure I like, the colour looked a lot different when it went on the walls, so I've only done a small section to see if I can live with it. Would rather not spend any more money painting over it.
I do still have a £10 B&Q voucher from Christmas, so if I really can't bear it I will use that for some more paint.

I listed two bundles of DS's too small but saleable clothes on ebay. 3 watchers on one, 1 watcher on the other so far, not entirely sure how well they'll sell but it's worth a try. I have one other bundle to list tonight but I washed a few bits last night to freshen them up as had been in a bin bag for a while and they were still drying last night. The rest of the bag I sorted for the charity shop, so there's a big bag to go to them as soon as I can get there, I'm sure I can earmark a few more bits too.

I portioned up a big yellow sticker pack of sausages in the freezer so will get 3 or 4 meals out of them for DS. I also hardboiled a couple of eggs in the fridge for today that were just past their date but still fine to eat. Our pancakes were a success too and I reduced the quantity perfectly just to make us one each. No waste or overeating there!

Packed lunch for DS was made and a tin of soup thrown in the bag for me for lunch at work. Since being PT I don't get out for lunch and I'm finding I'm saving a lot of money there. I inevitably always came back from the supermarket with more than I needed or things I fancied but didn't need.

Checked the bank balance this morning and most of the big bills have gone out today. Always a depressing sight when there seems a lot more month left than money (I was paid less than a week ago), but have updated YNAB and it seems there's enough left in all of my categories. There is an overbudget of £54 in the 'house/DIY' category, but I am currently chasing refunds for two items totalling £210, so this should be more than covered by that. Any surplus will be split between the holiday pot and the car/house pot I think.

I am planning on taking DS out for dinner tonight - only to Morrisons cafe, but he likes it and it's cheap! If I wait until I'm hungry then his meal will be free anyway if I buy an adult's meal. I need to pick up a few bits that I didn't get yesterday whilst I'm there and may look at paint at the same time if the wall is still bugging me by the time I get home...

TFTA
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[Deleted User]

Hi Ave,


Thanks for popping by on my diary.


How lovely of your family to give you some next size clothes for DS, always a godsend


Sounds like you have a busy day today.


Pmo2
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